The use of LEDs in place of conventional incandescent, fluorescent, and neon lamps has a number of advantages. LEDs tend to be less expensive and longer lasting than conventional incandescent, fluorescent, and neon lamps. In addition, LEDs are generally more efficient and can output more light per watt of electricity than incandescent, fluorescent, and neon lamps.
However, LED fixtures tend to be more expensive to manufacture than incandescent and fluorescent fixtures. One reason for that is because most LED-based solutions are application specific. As such, each solution typically requires its own printed circuit board (PCB) with the LEDs already positioned thereon to provide the desired light output or power usage requirements. The result is an extremely high and varying number of PCB sizes and layouts that must be kept in stock to meet the varying requirements of particular lighting applications.
Furthermore, over-optics are typically used with the LEDs on the PCBs to distribute the light emitted by the LEDs. In some applications, these over-optics are individually coupled or positioned over each discrete LED on the PCB. Alternatively, a single over-optic is positioned over all of the LEDs on the PCB. At times, lighting designers desire to adjust the direction of the light being emitted through the over-optic without completely replacing the over-optic. This typically requires individually repositioning each of the over-optics with respect to their respective LEDs. This is time consuming, expensive, and difficult to replicate on a consistent basis, resulting in varied light output from fixture to fixture and from LED to LED.